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significant they were to the history of drag racing. As Dave Wallace so aptly pointed out in the caption, "This day, March 15, 1959, was when California started taking Don Garlits seriously." That picture is included on page 36 thanks to Walt Huff.
It was then that I decided this story had to be written. What started out as a response to Dave's article, ended up as a full blown account, and would include all the incredible events of that year. 1959 is widely considered among drag race fans as the greatest year in drag racing history.
What was so great about that first race was that we all knew (we being Southern California race fans) just how big this event was going to be! Although we had heard about him, none of us had ever laid eyes on this guy. Don Garlits was somehow enticed to come all the way from Tampa, Florida, to compete against the top dogs on the West coast. We later learned that big enticer was money..
We didn't know how March Meet 1 would turn out, why it became the fuel for the transformation of the Garlits' race car, Swamp Rat 1, and all the action that transpired over the next few weeks. That three-week period, March 1 through March 22, caused quite a stir, to put it mildly. It created a string of events among the top fuel drag racers that carried through the year all the way to a much-needed and highly anticipated showdown in December.
Enjoy this most incredible journey which I witnessed and have had the pleasure of writing about. It was a time of drag racing history that can never be duplicated. What a year!
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